


the art of convergence (the winter soldier remix)

by flyingthesky



Series: two paths diverged(and I could not take them both) [2]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-25
Updated: 2014-07-25
Packaged: 2018-02-10 12:04:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2024475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flyingthesky/pseuds/flyingthesky
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve Rogers has a choice on his first day at his new high school--sit next to Bucky Barnes or Sam Wilson. In this universe, he chooses Bucky.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the art of convergence (the winter soldier remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [twistedsky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedsky/gifts).



> A few months ago, my friend [twistedsky](http://archiveofourown.org/users/twistedsky/pseuds/twistedsky) and I were talking about this failed CW pilot that showed converging paths based on who the main character sat next to on the first day. This is the result of us saying "BUT WHAT IF" for several hangouts. You may want to read [the science of divergence(the falcon remix)](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1944597) before reading this, but it's not necessary.
> 
> Also this is late and under word count but I kind of gave up once I realized that this Bucky is apparently just not one for loquacious introspection.

"This is Steve Rogers," Coulson says. He gestures towards the student standing next to him, and Bucky is immediately intrigued because who the hell transfers schools in _November_? Nobody transfers schools in November and they especially don't transfer to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. "He's just transferred here, and Fury would like me to remind you that transfer students are _also_ covered under the rule about pranking new students on campus."

Bucky hears Tony mutter something that sounds like _you put ONE skeleton in a freshman's locker_ and he's not really surprised that Tony's behind the rule. He thinks that the freshman in question might be that techy girl Tony seems to hate—her name is Mary or something, he thinks—because they've been pranking each other for years at this point.

"You can sit next to either Sam or James," Coulson continues. He turns back around to start writing on the whiteboard and leaves the new kid standing at the front of the room like a lost deer. "As for everyone else, Fury has decided that given the events of last week, science is now restricted to the science labs."

While Coulson basically lectures Tony, Steve hesitantly slips into the seat next to Bucky. He looks a little lost, and Bucky totally doesn't blame him—it's hard enough to get settled into a regular school, but it's doubly hard to get the hang of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy. Or, well. Bucky would assume it is, because he knows that the school can be kind of . . . intense. It's not for everyone, that's for sure.

"Hi," Steve whispers. "I'm Steve Rogers."

"I'm Bucky." The expression on Steve's face seems slightly confused, but the daily Coulson lecture really isn't the time to explain. Bucky smiles. "Lemme see your schedule."

Steve hands over the slip of paper. It's handwritten, which is pretty standard for transfers as far as Bucky can tell. Coulson handles all that stuff—even though Bucky's pretty sure that's not his actual job. Nobody really knows what the hell Coulson does, though. Glancing at Steve's schedule, Bucky can tell that he's probably a pretty bright kid—there's a few AP classes thrown in, but it's mostly honors. They only share three classes, but that's mostly because it isn't like there's actually a huge range of classes available.

"Rough," Bucky tells Steve. "You've got Sitwell for econ. Other than that, it's pretty standard stuff. I'll show you around, if you want."

"Really?" Steve's whole face lights up like it's the fucking fourth of July and Bucky is so _so_ screwed. "Thank you."

"No problem." Bucky flashes his best, most winning smile and hopes it dazzles Steve too. "Somebody's got to teach you all the rules here."

[----]

By lunchtime, Bucky can tell that Steve is kind of dazed.

It's not an uncommon look on new students, so Bucky clasps Steve's shoulder and tells him that he's survived half the day. Steve looks like he's about to transfer back to wherever he came from, but he gives a tired smile anyway. Even that's too bright for Bucky, honestly.

"Is it always . . ." Steve trails off and waves a hand around. "This?"

"Pretty much," Bucky says. He steers Steve toward the cafeteria. "It stops being so weird after a week, I promise."

The look Steve gives him when he turns around says that he doesn't believe a single word that Bucky is telling him. It's true, though, S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy gets a lot less weird and hectic after the first week for most people. He's never really been to any other schools, but Bucky gets the feeling that most freshmen don't walk around looking like hardened war vets after their first month—or two weeks, if Fury decides that the first month of the school year is a good time to run preparedness drills.

People (mainly Coulson) _claim_ that S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy isn't a fucking military school, but Bucky has it on good authority that regular schools don't run obstacle courses in PE and have shooting ranges. Or firearm clubs sponsored by the principal.

(There are only two members of the firearms club: Bucky and Nat. Sometimes they actually shoot guns, but mostly they watch action movies and critique everyone's form.)

Across the cafeteria, Bucky sees Nat's ramrod posture. She's sitting under an air vent, as usual, and Bucky would bet nearly anything Clint is tossing her notes. He drags Steve over there and sits down across from Nat before gesturing for Steve to sit down.

"Nat, this is the new kid—Steve. Steve, this is Nat but she'll probably kill you if you don't call her Natasha for right now."

"Correct," Nat says with a practiced smoothness. She looks Steve up and down and then ignores him, speaking directly to Bucky. "What have I told you about picking up strays?"

Steve nervously slides into the spot next to Bucky. Nat takes a sip of her water, and Bucky sighs. "He's not a stray. I'm just showing him around, 'sall."

"Of course," Nat says. She turns to Steve and smiles politely. "Hello. I'm Natasha Romanov, president of the firearms club as well as Bucky's best and only friend. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," Steve says. He's flustered, and Bucky is pretty sure he's blushing too. "I hope we can be friends."

"Perhaps," Nat says. She takes another sip of water, and Bucky can tell she's almost smiling.

It's a good sign.

[----]

Steve keeps looking at the posters for the winter formal kind of longingly and Bucky doesn't really have the heart to break Steve's all-American dreams or whatever, so he doesn't really tell him that dances at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy don't really go the way they do in the movies. Like, at all. Instead, he just asks how much Steve likes glitter.

"About as much as a normal person?" Steve's answer seems kind of confused, which really tells Bucky everything he needs to know. "What does that have to do with the dance?"

"Let's just say," Bucky says carefully, "that some of the dances here may or may not involve glitter bombs."

"I thought you said bombs were against the rules."

"They are." Bucky shrugs, because he doesn't really know how to explain the intricacies of the rules. "But that never stops anybody. Look, if you're really desperate to meet some people, I'm having a bunch of friends over at my place that day."

This is a bold-faced lie, but Steve doesn't have to know that. He also doesn't have to know that Bucky is just going to invite Nat and Clint and, like. Probably maybe some of his slightly less illegal friends. He doesn't actually have that many, but Clint does so maybe he'll get Clint to invite some people. Circus people are better than illegal people, right?

Oh god, why doesn't he have any normal friends. Why is this his life.

"Really?" Steve looks like some kid that believes in Santa or something and Bucky isn't going to crush that hope. "That sounds great!"

Natasha is going to make fun of him forever for holding a party just so Steve could be happy.

[----]

After the first week, Steve has almost completely integrated himself into the fabric of S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, which makes Bucky kind of feel like a proud mama hen—which is weird, but is way, _way_ better than popping weird boners whenever Steve smiles, so Bucky'll take it. He gets this weird feeling that he's forgotten to tell Steve something though, which is why Clint finally falling out of the ceiling on Steve's desk surprises him as much it surprises Steve.

"Hi," Clint says to Steve, once he's picked himself up off the floor. Steve looks vaguely terrified, and Bucky kind of wants to wrap him in a blanket and feed him hot cocoa. As usual, Clint shows zero regard for delicate situations. "You look bigger up close—and also kind of like a beefcake from Bucky's calender he likes to pretend he doesn't own."

". . . You fell out of the ceiling." Steve looks from Clint to Bucky, as if trying to will someone to explain this event to him. Bucky is too busy punching Clint for being a traitor to respond. "Why were you in the ceiling?"

"Mister Barton," Mrs. May says impatiently. "Please return to your seat and _try_ not to be more of a nuisance than you have to."

Clint salutes her and crouches down before jumping up to grab the edge of the hole he just made. He climbs back up into the ceiling, leaving Steve sitting and staring up. Bucky pats him on the shoulder.

"I'll explain at lunch," Bucky tells him. Steve still looks bewildered, but he relaxes slightly.

[----]

"James Buchanan Barnes," Nat says once he and Steve sit down for lunch. She only uses his full name when he's done something truly idiotic, so Bucky braces himself. "I'm revoking your right to show Steve around, because you _forgot to tell him about Clint_."

"I mean, I sort of did." Bucky shrugs helplessly, because it's true. Steve had asked who Clint was and why he was never actually in class and Bucky told him that Clint was Nat's friend and nobody really understood why he was never actually in class. "I just forgot to tell him Clint lives in the ceiling."

"Clint!" Nat's voice is sharp, and the air vent above her shifts and Clint jumps down. "Introduce yourself. _Properly_."

Clint opens his mouth like he's going to say something sassy just to make Nat mad, but then he closes it and holds out his hand to Steve. "Hi, I'm Clint Barton. I live in the ceiling as part of my super secret spy training."

"He doesn't actually live in the ceiling," Nat says as she slices her apple with the knife she keeps in her hair. "He lives in my spare room."

"It's nice to meet you," Steve says. He shakes Clint's hand and gives him a winning smile. "I'm Steve."

"Yeah," Clint says excitedly. "You're the new kid. We don't get new kids that often here, why'd you transfer so late?"

"Oh, um." Steve looks down at his lunchbox. He's the only kid past the age of like twelve that Bucky has seen with an actual honest to god lunchbox. "I got a letter from Mr. Fury saying he'd offer me a full scholarship, so."

The way Steve shrinks down makes Bucky wrap an arm around his shoulders. "Hey, don't sweat the weird circumstances. Almost everyone ends up here because they're screwed up somehow."

"I guess." Steve picks at his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. "I like it better here, though. Zero tolerance really means zero tolerance."

[----]

Okay, so maybe Bucky doesn't exactly have a party on the day of the dance.

He _intends_ to, but then everybody decides to actually go to the dance and he's left with just Clint and Nat and Steve sitting on his couch drinking coke. Which, you know, is not the worst way to spend a Friday night but it's not really what he had planned at all.

"So," Bucky says, "who wants to go to the beach?"

[----]

They end up on the beach at nine o'clock at night, running on the sand and trying to catch each other, which is the kind of thing that most people think only happens in movies. It's silly and they're not even drunk, because Steve is straight edge and Bucky is actually attempting to, like. Cut down on his reckless as shit behavior. Nat says it's because he's trying to clean up for Steve, but Bucky keeps telling her that it's only because he actually _wants_ to graduate.

Steve collapses onto the sand, laughing as Clint tickles him and Bucky just stands and watches them for a moment. Part of him wants to rush in and save Steve from Clint, but he doesn't know if that would be weird or not. It's kind of hard to tell when you've only known someone for a little over a week.

"Go save him," Nat says. "I don't think he'll mind—he can take care of himself, but I feel like maybe he doesn't always remember to."

"Don't psychoanalyze him." Bucky bumps his shoulder to Nat's and then he's charging in to save Steve from Clint. "I'll save you, Steve!"

He doesn't actually save Steve so much as end up in a massive tickle battle against both Clint _and_ Steve, which is unfair because it's two against one and Natasha refuses to join in. He wheezes, out of breath from laughing and struggling, and calls uncle.

"I didn't really want to meet anybody else," Steve says, once they're lying out on the sand and looking up at the stars. "So I'm kind of glad no one came."

"Me too," Bucky says. He feels like they're having a moment, and he's about to say something really dumb when Clint dumps a bucketful of sand on his midsection. "What the— _Clint_!"

Clint dashes off, laughing like a maniac, and Bucky has to scramble up to catch him. When he finally does, he sits on Clint until Clint agrees to buy pancakes for everybody at IHOP.

[----]

When they get to IHOP, both Bucky and Clint order good ol' buttermilk pancakes. Steve orders whole wheat pancakes with bananas, because he's the kind of person that doesn't understand the beauty of IHOP is drowning everything in syrup, and Nat orders New York cheesecake pancakes because she would kill anybody if they knew but she secretly likes intensely sweet things.

"Oh my god," Clint moans once he's finished, "I don't even know how I'm going to pay for this. This is too many food."

"Don't play dumb," Bucky tells him. He punches Clint in the shoulder for good measure. "We all know your family makes tons of money doing the circus at the state fair every year."

"Circus?" Steve blinks curiously, and Bucky realizes that they never actually told Steve what it is Clint actually does. "Are you a clown or something?"

Clint shakes his head and grins. "Nah, I'm much cooler than that. You're looking at the amazing Hawkeye, best sharpshooter there ever was!"

"I'm a better straight shot," Nat says. She's still eating, cutting delicate pieces of pancake and dipping them in strawberry syrup. "Clint just knows silly trick shots."

"Shut up, Nat." Clint throws his napkin at her, and Nat catches it without even looking up. "They're _cool_ trick shots. I don't see you shooting boomerang arrows."

". . . Why would you need a boomerang arrow?" Steve is genuinely confused now, and Bucky honestly doesn't blame him. Clint is super weird sometimes. "I can't see that being useful."

"Nah," Clint says. He gets that wistful, dreamy expression on his face that he always has when he's talking about arrows. "Boomerang arrows are great because they're the only arrows that always come back to you."

[----]

They don't actually plan to meet Fitz-Simmons on the way back from IHOP, that's just how things work out. Really, Bucky should have invited them instead of other people—they're not even allowed at school dances after an Incident involving a confetti bomb that may or may not have gone slightly awry.

"Hello, Clinton!" Simmons waves, mostly to Clint apparently, and drags Fitz over to their group. "I see you've opted not to attend the dance."

"I heard there was going to be a glitter bomb this year," Clint says. "Me? I don't really dig the glitter look."

"I hear it was quite spectacular," Simmons says excitedly. "Skye said that it went off directly over Grant's head, which really just serves him right for _still_ attempting to date her even though she's clearly dating _me_. Honestly, what is he even—oh! Hello, I don't believe we've met."

Simmons holds her hand out, and Steve shakes it obediently. "I don't believe we have. I'm Steve Rogers."

"You're the transfer student!" Simmons grins excitedly and tugs on Fitz's shoulder. "Fitz, it's the new transfer student."

"You should just ignore Jemma," Fitz says. He ignores Jemma's affronted noise and holds out his hand for Steve to shake too. "I'm Leo Fitz and she's Jemma Simmons, but most people just call us Fitz-Simmons."

"It's nice to meet you both." Steve smiles extra brightly. "Can I ask why you're not at the dance? Especially if your girl is there."

"Oh, um." Jemma looks over at Fitz nervously. He shrugs, and she sighs. "We're sort of . . . barred from attending any school dances. It's in the rules and everything."

"The rule doesn't say _we're_ banned from attending dances exactly," Fitz says. "It says anyone who sets off a confetti bomb will be banned from school dances."

". . . Isn't that kind of the same thing?"

[----]

[----]

"I've been wondering," Steve says about a month after he first gets to S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, "what does S.H.I.E.L.D. actually stand for?"

"Super Horse Interaction Education and Lemur Development," Clint says without missing a beat. Nat rolls her eyes. "We used to be a zoo."

"Clint's wrong," Bucky tells Steve. "It totally stands for Safe Humanity Integration Education and Lifeskills Development, because the student body is totally not ready to interact with regular humans yet."

"Don't listen to them," Nat says. She sighs, setting down her sandwich. "S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't stand for anything, Fury just thought it looked cool."

[----]

Because Sitwell is the most evil teacher at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, he assigns a group project that's due the day before winter break a week before winter break. It's inhumane, and the only saving grace of the project (who even assigns group projects that require a skit in a government class?) is that Bucky gets to work with Steve.

It's mostly a saving grace because it means that Bucky gets to invite Steve to come over every day for a week without looking like a huge creep that really just wants to spend more time with him. Bucky is 100% willing to admit that he hopes study dates bring him closer to kissing Steve Rogers on the lips.

Unfortunately, Steve is the kind of person that takes "study date" to, like. Actually mean study date.

It's not like Bucky minds that much because they come up with a kick-ass skit to present for Sitwell, but he still does kind of wish that Steve had taken a hint from like every TV show and movie ever. Study dates are for making out, not actual studying.

[----]

Nat and Clint usually disappear off the face of the Earth during winter break, so Bucky is kind of expecting Steve to disappear for a couple weeks too. He's not expecting Steve to ask to hang out several times a week, but . . . It's nice. Bucky hasn't given up on kissing Steve, obviously, but it's nice to just spend him with him too.

They go to a movie, the park, hang out at Steve's house, and even manage to run into Fitz-Simmons at the mall. Absently, Bucky wonders if this is how other people spend their winter breaks. He doesn't know, really, because Nat and Clint are the only people he'd ever really _want_ to hang out with during the holiday season and they've got families to be with so he's gotten used to never seeing his friends during winter break.

Hanging out with Steve is nicer, though, and not for the first time Bucky wishes they'd met earlier.

[----]

Sometimes, Bucky's not sure that Steve is real. Like, he's touched Steve so obviously Steve is _solid_ , but that's not the same thing as being _real_.

During spring break, Steve invites Bucky and Bucky's whole family over for Christmas dinner—which is ridiculous because Bucky knows that like. Okay, so he doesn't really understand Steve's financial situation, but he knows only a couple of people end up on scholarship at S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, and they're not really. The scholarships are merit-based only insofar as Fury, supreme dictator that he is, really wants someone at his school even if there are other factors in why they can't.

So they're really more need-based than anything, and Bucky counters by inviting _Steve_ and his family over to Christmas dinner. Steve accepts, and then he and his mom show up with like five different dishes and really apologetic looks on their faces.

"Sorry," Steve says. He's holding a pie and casserole dish. "We weren't sure what to bring?"

"I told you you didn't have to bring anything," Bucky says, taking the pie from Steve. "You guys really went all-out, didn't you?"

"It isn't every day Stevie makes friends," Mrs. Rogers says. Her smile is just as dazzling as Steve's, which means that Steve's smile can probably be accredited to genetics. "We wanted to make a good impression."

There's something hard in Mrs. Roger's eyes when she looks at Bucky, and Bucky breathes out. She's not the only one that wants to make a good impression.

[----]

As it turns out, Mrs. Rogers makes a _mean_ apple pie.

Like, Bucky's had plenty of apple pie so he's pretty sure he speaks from a place of experience when he says that hers might be the best apple pie he's ever had. Which, all of her food is utterly delicious and Bucky is so, _so_ glad that they get to keep the leftovers. They're his. He doesn't care how much his mom and dad want them, Mrs. Roger's food is _his_ and he will stuff it all in his mouth to make sure it stays his if he has to. Steve laughs when Bucky says this out loud.

"You know, you could always just come over for dinner sometime instead." Steve looks over at his mom. "Bucky can come over for dinner sometime, right?"

"Of course." Mrs. Roger's eyes have soften over the course of dinner, like she's warmed up to Bucky, and he thinks that might be a good sign. "As long as you both do your homework, Bucky can come over whenever he wants."

[----]

When everybody gets back to school, Tony Stark basically immediately blows the science lab up. It's not exactly a surprising thing for most of the student body, because Tony blows _something_ up about once a semester. Still, this is Steve's first time witnessing a Tony-caused school disaster and Bucky understands that it can be kind of overwhelming.

"Why is everyone acting like this isn't a big deal?" Steve seems a little freaked out by the fact that the whole student body is standing on the football field and chatting like this happens all the time. Because it does. "The science lab _exploded_!"

"It happens," Bucky says. He shrugs and scans the football field for Nat. "Going to school with Tony Stark is an occupational hazard, things blow up a lot."

"The science lab exploded!" Steve is very distressed. " _Exploded_."

"Yeah, I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened before. Tony's idea of science is blowing stuff up." He spots Nat and waves her over. "We should just skip out, school is going to be over before we get let go."

"This school is weird," Steve says very seriously. He sighs. "I've never skipped school before."

"Oh? Then we should definitely skip out." Bucky grins at Steve. "Live dangerously, Steve."

[----]

They end up at a Chuck E. Cheese.

Bucky has no idea why they end up at a Chuck E. Cheese (or why a Chuck E. Cheese is even open on a school day), but they do. Nat is sitting in the booth and eating shitty pizza like it's her job while she stares at the animated mouse on the stage. It's terrifying.

"I feel like I'm in a movie about middle schoolers," Steve says suddenly. The only other people in the Chuck E. Cheese currently are a bunch of soccer moms with toddlers. "This is weird."

"C'mon, Steve. Let's go play skeeball." Bucky stand, holding out his hand. Steve looks at him for a moment and then takes it. "Hopefully we don't make any toddlers cry."

"They'll cry no matter what," Nat says. "You boys have fun, I'll just be here eating pizza."

[----]

Bucky wins Steve a teddy bear.

"Here," he says. "You can give it to your mom or something."

Steve takes it skeptically and then says, very carefully. "Bucky Barnes, are you . . . _wooing_ me?"

"Maybe." Bucky shrugs, noncommittal. "Is that a bad thing?"

"No," Steve says. He smiles down at the bear. "I was just wondering if I was dreaming."

[----]

Nothing really changes when Steve and Bucky decide to start dating. Like, they don't really do anything different other than sometimes holding hands and Bucky is now expected to come over every Friday for dinner because Mrs. Rogers wants to get to know Bucky.

Mrs. Rogers kind of scares him a little, but Steve insists she's not going to hurt him or anything. He guesses that's true—she doesn't really ask him much other than things like what he likes to eat and what his best subjects are. She also tells Bucky a bunch of embarrassing stories about Steve when he was younger, because apparently Steve only recently became the kind of buff and built.

"Mom," Steve says. She's just told Bucky a story about the time Steve got pushed into a pool because he was standing up for someone. "You're embarrassing me."

"You shouldn't be embarrassed," she says curtly. Bucky feels the same way. "There's nothing embarrassing about standing up for yourself."

"She's right." Bucky tangles his fingers with Steve's and grins. "It's one of my favorite things about you."

[----]

Steve becomes really agitated toward the end of March, and Bucky's not really sure why. He congratulates people when they get into colleges, but always seems kind of sad and never really mentions anything about his own colleges.

"Okay, something is seriously bothering you," Bucky says one day during their art class. "So fess up Steve Rogers: what's got you acting so weird lately?"

"It's nothing," Steve says, which is basically Steve for _I'm having an issue but I don't want you to worry so I'm just not going to tell you_. "Sit still."

"I am," Bucky says. He's not, really, but he's never really been good at it in the first place. "And that's bull. Just tell me."

"I just haven't heard back from my top choice school." He doesn't look up from his canvas, which is never a good sign. "It's not a big deal, their acceptances don't come out until around now anyway, it's just that . . ."

There's a sigh from behind the canvas, and Bucky doesn't even have to see Steve to know he's folded in on himself. Bucky waits for him to finish his thought, because he's learned that it's better to just wait for Steve to collect himself. He'll spill his secrets, if you're patient.

"They've been sending me emails, inviting me to mixers and alumni events, and I don't know if that means I'm accepted or they're just sending them to everyone, you know?"

For a couple seconds, Steve paints in silence. Then, Bucky stands up and comes around to see the painting—which he's definitely not supposed to do, but whatever. Steve can yell at him in a couple of minutes.

"Gimme your cellphone, we're gonna call this school of yours and ask if you got in."

" _Bucky_ ," Steve says. It's almost a whine, but not quite. "Go sit back down, I told you it wasn't important."

"It's important to me." Bucky holds out his hand and waits for Steve to hand over his cellphone. "C'mon, let's get it over with."

"Fine." Steve crosses his arms. "I'm going to call though."

Bucky shrugs, it doesn't actually matter to him who calls. He watches Steve call, even though technically rule number ten is "absolutely no making calls during class _especially you Sitwell_." Steve talks to somebody for a couple of minutes and the sort of . . . collapses onto the drawing horse.

"Yes," Steve says. "Yes, I. Thank you so much, ma'am. You have a nice day too."

Hanging up, Steve just breathes for a couple of seconds and Bucky's not sure whether he should be prepared to congratulate Steve or console him. He mentally prepares to do either, just in case.

"I got in," Steve says quietly. "I . . . I got in!"

"Of course you did." Bucky sits down next to Steve on the drawing horse and hugs him close. "Anybody'd look at you and know that you're a keeper."

[----]

The day before spring break, there's a school festival. It's pretty much just because nobody even wants to learn anything by fifth and sixth period, so the supreme dictator just lets everybody run around on the football field until the end of the school day so nobody skips.

It's a pretty good deal, if you ask Bucky, because it means that he gets to take Steve on a school-sanctioned date. He kind of expects that they'll play a couple carnival games and maybe get some cotton candy and it'll be really cute. He's definitely not expecting what happens when they walk up to the face painting booth—but to be fair, Bucky doesn't think anybody would expect All-American Boy Steve Rogers to grin and ask for the painter to paint a penis on his neck.

"You too," Steve says. He tugs on Bucky, pushing him down on the chair. "We can match."

"Who are you and what have you done with my boyfriend, Steve Rogers?" Bucky laughs and tells the face painter to paint one on each cheek. And also one on his forehead. "What even brought this on?"

"Don't you ever feel like we're running out of time to be silly and get the urge to do something really ridiculous?"

"No," Bucky says honestly. He usually just does the silly (or stupid) thing and worries about the consequences later. "Nat gets like that sometimes, though."

"Today feels like a good day to be silly." Steve takes some of the face paints from the lady and starts doodling on Bucky's skin. "I'm gonna paint a rainbow of these on you."

"Okay." Bucky doesn't care. It's fine by him. "Let's make some truly regrettable choices!"

[----]

By the end of the festival, most of the student body has genitalia painted on them and Bucky's kind of proud. Steve seems mostly embarassed, probably because the whole thing is his fault, but Bucky honestly thinks it's the most fun he's ever had at one of the school festivals. They eat too much cotton candy by the end of the festival, and some of the penises Bucky got drawn on him have smeared slightly, but none of it matters because everything about the past couple of hours has been amazing. Bucky's walking Steve home after school when they pass the tattoo parlor and Steve slows. He's looking into the window longingly, and Bucky thinks they could maybe stand to make one more stupid choice.

"You wanna get tattoos?"

"We can't," Steve says sadly. "We're not eighteen. At least, I'm not."

Bucky shrugs. "Clint might know a guy. It'll be fine."

"This is a bad idea," Steve says. That's not actually _no_ , though, so Bucky waits. "But you know what? Let's do it."

"I'll call Clint when we get to your place." Bucky hold out his hand, and Steve takes it. "I'm guessing we should wash up first, though."

"Probably," Steve says. He laughs slightly, and Bucky thinks he's made enough good choices that this stupid one will be okay. "Especially you."

[----]

Clint does, in fact, know a guy.

He comes by Steve's house, because Steve's mom is out, and does their tattoos—Steve gets something he's been designing for a while on his shoulder, and Bucky gets a red star on his bicep—before telling them how to take care of them. Bucky pays, because it was his idea in the first place. Clint's guy is apparently a legit tattoo artist who sometimes does jobs like this on request because he thinks the age limit on tattoos is silly.

"What's the star for?" 

Steve ghosts his fingers over it and Bucky shrugs. "I want a star for important things. This one is for meeting you."

In hindsight, Bucky probably should have expected Steve to kiss him. The kiss is hesitant, but enthusiastic, and Bucky thinks that yeah. This is a good situation for their first kiss.

[----]

If you asked Bucky what the least likely thing to happen ever was, he'd say that it would be Steve asking to come to a firearms club meeting. And yet, Steve asked to come and Bucky couldn't say no because anybody who could say no to Steve Rogers' face was a stronger man than Bucky. Seriously, Bucky is pretty sure they could bottle Steve's expression and it'd be some kind of miracle cure for assholes.

When she sees Steve, Nat makes that face she makes when she disapproves of every life choice someone (usually Bucky) has made. Bucky is about to start explaining himself when Steve sees Nat and smiles.

"Sorry if I'm intruding, I just wanted to see what this club Bucky runs is all about." Steve scuffs the front of his shoe against the ground. "He doesn't talk much about it, but it's important to him so I figured I could stand to learn about it, you know?"

Nat nods. "Everyone should know about firearms. Not necessarily how to use them, but how they work. It makes life safer."

There's a lot Nat doesn't say about herself to anyone that Bucky only knows because they grew up together, so he knows she feels strongly that people should know how guns work because it's been drilled into her from a young age. It's not really that Bucky disagrees (he's president of the firearms club), but he knows it's sometimes difficult for other people to understand. Steve, however, just nods.

"People not understanding the technology they have is what always seems to get us in trouble."

The very faintest smile graces Nat's face, which even Bucky has only seen a handful of times. She really likes Steve, he realizes, which is pretty rare for Nat. Generally she just kind of tolerates people (Sam and Bruce) or pretends to tolerate them (Tony), and the number of people that Nat will willingly spend time with is pretty much limited to Bucky and Clint.

"Would you like me to show you my favorite gun?" Nat's expression is still fairly neutral, but Bucky can tell she's genuinely excited by the idea of showing Steve her precious guns. "Bucky can show you his, but mine is better."

"That'd be great," Steve says, and the remarkable thing is that Bucky can tell he means it. "Sorry, Buck, but ladies always come first."

There's a small huff of breath from Nat that might be a laugh from anyone else, and Bucky thinks that he's totally made the right choice in dating Steve. Also choosing to spend the rest of his life with Steve, but that's secondary.

[----]

In hindsight, Bucky should have realized that Steve is too much of an upstanding citizen to participate in ditch day. Still, he had kind of been looking forward to, like. Having a secret date with Steve - not that the study dates and milkshakes and everything weren't awesome, but for once Bucky kind of wanted to take Steve someplace nice and go on a proper date. Steve deserved that kind of thing, in Bucky's opinion, and it was a total failure on his part that every time they were going to hang out, Nat or Clint somehow ended up tagging along.

Nat punches him in the shoulder hard enough that it seriously stings, and Bucky flinches. "The hell was that for?"

"I'm sorry your All-American boyfriend is too much of a goody two-shoes to come out with us on ditch day, but we have been planning this for years. You are going to have fun, or I will make you have fun."

Nat's got her hands on her hips and she looks really stern, but Bucky can tell she's genuinely kind of concerned about his wellbeing. He smiles, and then grabs the backpack he'd packed last night.

"Ok, ok. I'm ready to have fun."

[----]

After a solid day engaged in the most epic prank war known to humanity against Tony and his crew, Bucky comes home to find Steve sitting on his front porch.

"Hi," Steve says. He waves, and Bucky sits down next to him. "I heard you wiped the floor with Tony."

"We did, he never even - hey, how'd you know that?"

"Tony texted Sam with increasingly terrible grammar." Steve shrugs, and then leans on Bucky. "We were basically the only seniors there, so Sam just read the texts out loud. I'm sure being there would have been better, though."

"As if you could even pull a prank."

"You'd be surprised." Steve smiled, a certain glint in his eyes, and Bucky wondered if Steve would ever stop surprising him. "The kids at my old school could probably tell you a thing or two about the things I've done."

There was a certain sadness to that statement too, the same sadness that cropped up whenever Steve mentioned his old school. Bucky never pressed for the actual details, but Steve had told him bits and pieces. All Bucky really knew was that Steve's situation at his old school wasn't great and he got bullied a lot, mostly because he stood up to them. Every time Steve talks about his old school, though, a part of Bucky wishes very fiercely that he'd been there to protect Steve from everything.

"We'll have to prank someone together sometime, then."

[----]

"I never asked," Steve says while they're studying for a government test. He sets his pencil down and looks straight at Bucky. "Where are you going to college? You never talk about it."

Bucky taps his pencil on his government book and tries to think about how to answer this question. It's not really that he hasn't thought about it, it's more like it doesn't really matter to him. He sighs.

"I'm not really built for college like you, but my parents want me to go, so I thought I'd just go to a community college near your school until I figure out what I really want to do. Does that make sense?"

Steve nods. "Yeah, that makes sense. We should look at colleges after we're done studying for this test and figure out which is the closest—and maybe find you an apartment too."

". . . You know, I hadn't even thought about that." Bucky laughs. He's so glad Steve understands this. "Guess that's why I have you."

[----]

Graduation isn't really anything special, honestly.

There's a really long, boring ceremony where Bruce gives a speech and Bucky sleeps through it because the seating is alphabetical so he's nowhere near any of his friends and then they have to shake Fury's hand and get a fake diploma. It's nowhere near as fun or engaging as the movies make it out to be, and it doesn't even really hit Bucky that it's _over_ until after the ceremony.

They're standing out on the field with their families, being pushed into different pictures, and Bucky looks at Steve and thinks _I'm going to be living with him in two months_. Something in his heart seizes up, and he hugs Steve a little too hard.

"I love you," he says.

"I love you too," Steve says.

[----]

Tony Stark holds a graduation party that night, which Bucky isn't even going to but then Steve says that Sam invited him and Bucky's been to a Tony Stark party before so he goes to make sure Steve doesn't drink anything. _Everything_ at a Tony party is spiked. All of it.

The party _is_ kind of fun though, if only because Nat challenges Clint to beer pong and they play the most intense match of beer pong ever known to man. Seriously, it's an epic beer pong match and Tony records it for posterity—but not youtube, because none of them are that stupid. Oh also Bucky coaxes Steve into making out with him in the kitchen, which is automatic awesome points for any event.

Like every Tony party, there's a lot of chaos but there's also small pockets of quiet in that chaos. About halfway through the party, Steve and Bucky tuck themselves away on a loveseat in Tony's living room that everybody else seems to leave alone. Steve's leaning into Bucky, and they're both just kind of watching the party go on around them. 

It's a strange feeling.

For the moment, it's nice to be existing at this dumb high school party with all his dumb high school friends without having to worry about what's in the future or how he's going to get a degree. There's plenty of time to worry about that in the next two years, time to find himself and figure out who he is and what he wants. Well, what he wants besides Steve, that is, because he somehow doesn't think that's going to change any time soon.

But part of Bucky wonders if he'll ever seen some of these people again and what they'll be like in the future. Who will the people that he thinks he knows become? Will he even be able to recognize them?

As the party winds down, he thinks everyone else has started thinking the same way. Like, there are people Bucky knows he'll never be able to escape—Nat will hang onto him until he's cold and dead—but then he looks at people like Bruce and realizes that their paths are probably not going to meet very often.

"Hey," Bucky says. He nudges Steve, who looks over at him. "You know I'm with you til the end of the line, right?"

"Of course," Steve says. There's no hesitation in his answer, with reassures Bucky. "And I'm with you."

[----]

**EPILOGUE (TEN YEARS LATER)**

"Stop!" Steve tries to push Bucky away, laughing, but he's not that successful. "We're going to be _late_."

It's not Bucky's fault that Steve just looks really attractive in the suit he's picked out and he had to steal a kiss. That's something you can do when you're married—basically steal kisses whenever you want.

"Too bad," Bucky says. He's not sorry in the slightest as he tries to steal another kiss. "They can wait."

Nat walks into the bathroom, takes in the scene, and then walks right back out. "You don't have time for a quickie," she calls over her shoulder, "so you'd better be dressed in ten minutes when I come back."

Having known Nat forever, Bucky knows she's serious. She's probably kind of annoyed at him and Steve for taking so long to get ready in the first place, because they've been at this for twenty minutes. He reluctantly pulls away from Steve and actually starts tying his tie. It's the same tie he wore at their wedding, because it's not like he needs more than one even if _Steve_ thinks he does. Ties aren't really his thing, so it's not like he even needs to wear it that often. Steve straightens his tie and slips on his jacket, adjusting it until it's just right and then brushing imaginary dust off it. It's incredibly distracting, mostly because Bucky finds Steve incredibly distracting.

Bucky really, _really_ wants to jump his bones, but he figures there'll be time for that after the reunion when Nat is less likely to get mad at them. He slips on his jacket, buttoning it and stepping out of the way as Clint comes into the bathroom to grab his hairspray.

"Do you even live here?" Bucky shakes his head. "Why do you even have hair spray in our bathroom?"

Clint shrugs. "I just do."

Their living situation kind of weird, and Bucky's totally willing to admit that. It had kind of just made sense to all move in together after college, though, because they were all broke and just trying to make it. Except Bucky's pretty sure that Clint doesn't actually live with them. He doesn't _remember_ Clint moving in, but that's the problem with Clint. He just . . . shows up without warning.

"Okay," Bucky says. "Let's go get this over with."

"Don't say that!" Steve pushes Bucky out of the bathroom. "We haven't seen some of these people in ten years, Bucky. It'll be fun."

[----]

The reunion is not what Bucky would call fun. _Surprising_ , maybe—given that Nat and Sam abruptly announce that they're dating and moving into a new apartment together—but not _fun_.

Because Steve likes to make life difficult for Bucky, they have to mingle with their classmates and make small talk about the intervening ten years. Some people Bucky and Steve obviously don't have to talk to that much because they actually see each other. Others are almost unrecognizable as being the same people that did questionable things in high school.

It's weird to be around people he hasn't seen in ten years, because ten years can change a lot and some of the changes in his classmates are mind-boggling. Tony is almost the opposite of what he was like in high school: settled, nondestructive, and happily married to Pepper. Bucky can't even imagine the Tony in front of him being the same Tony who blew up the science lab and got grounded for life. Bruce, on the other hand, is the same calm and collected person that Bucky vaguely remembers—but he's changed in subtle ways too. His current girlfriend, a scientist named Betty Ross he met while researching something too complicated for Bucky to understand, makes him more grounded. More outspoken. 

Bucky wonders what people think has changed about him. He knows that people aren't the greatest at self-evaluation, but he can't think of too many things that have changed about him at all. He still doesn't really know what direction his life is taking him, but so long as he's with Steve he figures it'll work out alright.

"Do you ever think about how we've changed," Bucky asks Steve suddenly, "but the people we met helped make us who we are? Like, do you think sitting next to me instead of Sam on your first day changed things?"

Steve thinks for a long moment, brow furrowed. Bucky wants to smooth it, but he also knows better than to interrupt Steve when he's thinking. He used to, back when they were first learning each other, but he rarely ever does now. Maybe that's something that's changed about him, but it's so small he hardly thinks other people would notice it.

"Maybe a little," Steve says finally. He's looking out onto their high school class, seemingly watching them without purpose. "But I think all of the important things would have stayed the same."

"What important things?"

"Things like being in love with you." Steve looks over at Bucky and smiles. It still blindsides Bucky the way it did when they first met, but he's a lot more used to it now. "I don't think that would change in any universe."

Honestly, Bucky's not too sure about that. Surely there has to be a version of Steve somewhere out there who likes Sam or Nat or even Clint instead of him. Surely he's not lucky enough to have caught Steve in _every_ universe. That's just statistically unlikely.

Bucky laughs, tangling his fingers with Steve's. It hasn't gotten old yet, and Bucky doesn't think it ever will. "Bet you say that to all the boys."

"No," Steve says. It's so sincere it makes Bucky's head hurt. "Just you."


End file.
